Are Facebook’s video views closing in on YouTube’s?

A new survey by Ampere Analysis suggests that Facebook video views are growing so fast that they could catch up with YouTube’s in a few years.

YouTube has long reigned as the king when it comes to watching videos online. Its video views reach billions. But of late Facebook and Twitter have made strides in catering for video playback in their own platforms.

Facebook has made its intentions about hosting video clear, partnering with NFL and Fox Sports. And it would seem that it is now paying off. Earlier this year, Facebook revealed that in just one year, the number of video posts per person increased by 75% globally and 94% in the US.

Ampere arrived at its findings by surveying 10 000 consumers in Europe and North America. It found that about 15% of these consumers have watched videos on Facebook in the past month.

This is not a big number by any means but what is rather interesting though is that amongst the people who have watched video on Facebook, one-sixth of them (16.67 percent) did not watch anything YouTube in the past month. Though the number might be small in comparison to YouTube, Facebook video views are growing.

The survey says that Facebook is winning the video game because it is diversifying its business minimise churn risks from the purely social ‘social’ element of its business and that YouTube states that YouTube is no longer having an absolute market share in video platform and that in its quest to lure advertisers viewers could risk damaging growth prospects.

“Additional outlets for content, combined with advertising monetisation push, creates new opportunities and revenue streams” the survey says about Facebook.

According to the survey Facebook is on track to reach two thirds as many video views in 2015 as YouTube does. Considering Facebook’s user base, this is highly possible.

A lot of people are on Facebook, perhaps not exclusively to watch videos, but they might end up watching them. This is an advantage for Facebook.

Author | Myolisi Sikupela: Staff Reporter

Myolisi Sikupela was born in the Transkei in the village of Zikhovane. He is interested in the politics of technology. More